Thursday, February 3, 2011

My twitter followers and facebook fans will be aware that in the run up to Valentine's, I'm doing a blogathon of 7 Desserts for 7 Days. Me and Akber don't really celebrate Valentine's- the most we would do is to go out for dinner. And that too, if I take the pain and effort to book a place. Valentine's in Dubai is very commercialised with restaurants charging a premium to dine in for nothing special really. I'm sure the same can be said for many places and so I thought it would be fun to come up with seven Valentine desserts that you can whip up easily in no time or hassle but taste extra awesome. All the desserts that will be featured in the next week are typically romantic desserts with a little bit of roses, chocolate and strawberries! Besides, wouldn't you rather receive something made at home with a little extra love and care?!

Today's dessert is my absolute favourite from all the seven desserts- molten lava chocolate cake. What can depict Valentine's better than chocolate. And you really can't get more chocolate-y than this. This was the first time I baked this decadent cake and it was super easy! The trick to getting the oozing chocolate as you cut through the cake is to NOT overbake it. And using a good quality dark chocolate is really paramount. Even if you're not a fan of the dark chocolate variety, don't worry- the bitterness will not come through at all. I added a touch of coffee to enhance the chocolate flavour even more. So if you're a guy reading this, can I sugget this as a way to your woman's heart!

We served this straight out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A dollop of cream would be heavenly too. Although I feel the cake is best served straight out of the oven, it can be prepared in advance up until baking point. If you must bake it in advance, then thirty seconds in the microwave just before serving is advised.

This post has been submitted to February's Monthly Mingle hosted by Astrid at Paulchen's Food Blog.. Stay tuned tomorrow for something with chocolate, coconut and more chocolate. It's an individual dessert loved by all. Can you guess what it is?

And now for the giveaway. Since this is my first giveaway here on Lick My Spoon, I wanted it to be something straight from the heart. First I thought a box of chocolates but once eaten, they're forgotten about and I won't be doing your waistline any favours. So then I decided that something to help you in the kitchen would be grand! I'm happy to give away one of my favorite baking bibles- Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. This book has everything you will ever want to bake including cakes, breads, pastries and cookies. My favourite is the Devil's Food Cake with Mint Chocolate Ganache.

(Image from Amazon)

Here's how you can win:

1) Leave a comment to tell me what you'll be doing this Valentine's. Simple eh...... (although I wouldn't mind if you signed up to an email update)!

2) ''Like'' me on Facebook and leave a separate comment stating that you did.

3) Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following and then come and leave a separate comment stating that you did.

This giveaway is open to readers WORLDWIDE and will run until Sunday 13th February 2011 at 11:59pm GMT. The winner will be generated via a random number generator software program and announced on Thursday February 17th 2011. Winner will be notified via the contact email provided on the comment contact form.Winner will have until Monday 21st February 2011 to claim their prize or I will choose another winner.

Disclosure:

This giveaway is provided to you by Lick My Spoon. I have personally bought this book and have not been sponsored or compensated by any company. All views on the book are my own.

Molten Lava Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

10 tbs butter

8 oz. dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

3 large eggs

3 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp coffee powder

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade. Oil and flour six ramekins. In the microwave, melt the butter and chocolate in 30 second intervals until smooth. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth. Divide the batter evenly amongst the ramekins. Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 10-13 minutes (recipe calls for 10 but mine took 13 minutes). The cakes are done when the edges have set but the middle will still be soft. Run a knife around the edges of the ramekin to loosen the cakes and invert onto your serving plate. You can garnish with a little powdered icing sugar and strawberries on top.

I halved the recipe and got 3 individual cakes. Recipe adapted from Savory Sweet Life.

104
comments:

This delicious cake is something I am yet to make! tantalizing photograph! and I do not have any other chocolate other than dark chocolate.7 dessert in 7 days!! :-D enjoy girl.and I am sure every family member is going to enjoy too.

Ooooh I'll lick your spoon - for the lava cake & for this delicious book. I've had this one my wishlist for long. Maybe I get lucky this time. Gorgeous post and beautiful photographs. Thank you for hosting this wonderful giveaway. Happy V Day!!

Totally agree with your sentiments - I would rather receive something made at home with love and care...or make it with love and care for family and friends. My daughters will love this oozing dessert. Looking forward to the next 6 days.

I so agree with you.. everything becomes so commercialized these days ..the whole sentiment is lost smwhere in it.Your molten lava looks bomb! Need I say more! :) Loking forward to the coconut ones ..would create it for my coconut freak!

Ah, now I understand why you said molten lava chocolate cake was your chocolate bliss ;-) What a fantastic giveaway, I own that book and love it and I'm sure whoever is lucky enough to win it will as well! Looking forward to a dessert filled week.

Valentine's Day we'll be doing a car boot sale to get rid of more clutter and then going for breakfast down by the sea... Hot chocolate with mallows and huge homemade chips!That is one scrummy looking dessert!

OOOPS! Can u believe that, I just was writing a post on molten cake as well. I mean for me valentine's is nothing but a day to enjoy oozy chocolate. Thts all. May be a gift from husband can't be bad but that can't be bad on any day can it be? Well so what I'm doing? I'm eating molten cake on valentine

I'll be working most of the day, but I plan to have a lovely dinner with my hubby. He's taking care of dinner and I'm in charge of dessert. He (weirdly I know) doesn't like chocolate, so I'm probably going to make lemon tarts with rasperries on top!

this will be my first valentine day with a boyfriend :). we're not actually the lovey dovey pinky tipe, but, might bake him a cake that involves chocolate and LOTS of peanut butter (his favourite ingredient)the problem is, he doesnt live in the same country I am (he's in the us), so, might show him me eating the cake thru skype instead. haha. :D

Sadly my hubby is working late on V-Day, but I will be celebrating with our two kids regardless. I have gifts for them and will be making red velvet cheesecake brownies. Haven't decided on a dinner meal yet.

Baking is one of my favourite ways I love to show how much my bf and family means to me. On valentines day I'm going to go on a lovely river cruise and then come home and make dinner for my bf and feed him this dessert!

The cake looks yumm o yumm!I'm excited for the giveaway :D completed all the steps.. ..I don't really celebrate valentines day. It's a good excuse to make your loved ones feel special though :) I'll whip up a dessert at home and wish all my friends :)

This is my first time to your blog. It's beautiful and these molten lava chocolate cakes look delicious! I was going to cook a nice dinner for my bf and I on Valentine's, but now I'm not sure since our oven broke :-(

I make a dessert like this, called chocolate fondant, I think it's the same. Was thinking I'd make it for Valentine, but now I'm thinking I might go with the passion fruit mousse on your site instead :)

I won't be doing anything for V-Day, because my husband refuses to acknowledge its status as a holiday--always has, always will. I'm cool with it, because he sends me flowers and takes me out to dinner randomly throughout the year. :)

This Valentine's Day... hmmm... since I'll be miles away from my fiancé, I'm going to spend Valentine's day cooking for my mom and brother and then studying. Blah. But most probably I'm going to be making Sabrina's Endless bowl of Chicken Soup with Bruschetta and your Molten lava cake!

Valetine's Day would have been spent at home celebrating our daughter's 11th birthday. Instead I'll have to go spend the day at the office because one of my employees is leaving on a family emergency for a week. Big Bummer. So, instead of celebrating her birthday on the 14th, we'll be enjoying it the day before. She already told us that it's quite OK with her because she'll get her birthday present one day earlier. LOL